August 28, 2008

EARLY RESEARCHER AWARD PROGRAM

Through the Early Researcher Award program, the McGuinty government is helping promising, recently appointed Ontario researchers undertake cutting-edge research and build their research teams of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and research associates. This round of awards will provide $280,000 to support two projects at Queen’s University. Researchers each receive a $140,000 award through the program.

Queen’s University

Dr. James Adam Howard Stotz Controlling Particles for Quantum Information     When confined to very small scales, the physics of a single electrical charge, an electron, or a single piece of light, a photon, follows a different set of rules called quantum mechanics.  Single electrons or photons can encode information allowing for fantastic new possibilities in quantum information processing.  For example, quantum cryptography is the only completely secure method to transmit sensitive information over a network.  Dr. Stotz and his research team will work to develop new ways to control these single electrons and photons for quantum information processing.

Dr. Hagit Shatkay Translating Data into Knowledge for Disease Prediction and Prevention The amount and diversity of biomedical data has been increasing at an astonishing pace since the sequencing of the human genome. However, dependable analytical tools that can help decipher the data are still in their infancy. Dr. Hagit Shatkay and her research team aim to join forces with physicians and biologists and develop the most fitting tools for computationally utilizing available data – including sequences, images and text – to model and understand biological and medical phenomena, and translate this knowledge into effective disease prediction and intervention methods.

Early Researcher Award

The Early Researcher Award program is a $51-million, five-year initiative. This program is a key component of the province's research and innovation strategy, which aims to strengthen Ontario's economic advantage by helping to attract, retain and develop the best and brightest researchers.

Each award to a leading researcher is a maximum of $100,000 and must be matched by an additional $50,000 from the researcher’s institution and/or a private sector partner. In addition, up to $40,000 in indirect costs is provided to the institution. The award must be used to cover the eligible expenses of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and research associates, including:

• Salaries and benefits
• Travel and expenses related to conferences, workshops or seminars
• Travel and expenses related directly to offsite research activities.

For more information about the Early Researcher Award, please visit www.ontario.ca/innovation.